Peaches and Thorns

Seiran laughed softly as Shouka-sama helped his daughter stand on his shoulders to reach the last ripe peach in a tree.

“She’s so fearless, that girl!” Shoukun-sama thumped down on the steps beside him, her own basket already full.

“After watching you climb those trees, that shouldn’t be a surprise, Shoukun-sama,” Seiran told her. He couldn’t help the faint edge of scolding in his voice; sometimes Shuurei’s innocent fearlessness truly terrified him, and her parents wouldn’t be there to protect her forever.

Sometimes he wondered how long he would be there.

A cool hand on his cheek made him start. “You’re drifting again,” Shoukun-sama scolded back.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured.

She sighed. “My little Seiran.” Very quietly she added, “If the palace will be such a cage to you, I will be sad to see you walk back in and pick up your chains again.”

Seiran looked up, helplessly, into deep, beautiful eyes. “I don’t know anymore. I…” he looked away, “it didn’t used to be.” But that had been when he was a silly, bright-eyed child, before he’d been shown what filth humans could be.

Before he’d been shown he was just like them.

And it was so terribly easy, now, to imagine the faces of his elder brothers when he remembered the wet slide of his sword cutting flesh. So easy. What would the glittering poison of the Court be to him now? A cage? Or truly his natural place?

Shoukun-sama sniffed. “Well, perhaps it isn’t cages they keep hunting hawks in, but they aren’t free, all the same.”

Seiran bit his lip. She saw so much, even the things he never wanted anyone to see. “Maybe I’m the kind of hawk they give up on and abandon because it can’t be tamed,” he said, voice low.

“Oh, what nonsense.” She ruffled his hair as he stared at her. “You’re quite tame with us.”

Seiran smiled, shy and rueful; that was true.

“Perhaps I should kidnap that little brother of yours and keep both of you here,” she added, thoughtfully.

His breath caught in flash of such wild wanting it blinded him for a moment. “Shoukun-sama, please don’t tease,” he begged. He didn’t think his heart could stand much of that.

She just looked at him for a long moment, and finally sighed. “So be it. Will you promise me something, then?”

“Anything.”

“So quick to let a woman take advantage of you!” she laughed, but then sobered. “You don’t have to be very tame, you know. But let others help you to protect what is precious.” Her fingers touched his cheek again. “Promise me.”

Seiran opened his mouth to protest and then closed it. She hadn’t said to let anyone else do it for him; just to let some people help. “I promise,” he said softly.

“There’s my Seiran. And here’s your reward.” She pressed a peach into his hand.

Seiran looked down at it and smiled wryly. “Are you secretly the leader of the eight enlightened ones, handing over peaches of immortality?” he asked, and really thought he might only be half joking.

Shoukun-sama laughed softly. “Oh, I’m something much worse than that. But don’t worry; I wouldn’t do such a thing to you.” He looked up, puzzled, but she only shook her head and touched his hair. “It will be all right, Seiran. Just remember your promise.”

He bowed his head under her hand. “I will.”

He would let others help. If they were worthy to protect precious things. If he could trust them with the task.

He didn’t expect to find many of those.

End

A/N: The leader of the Eight Immortals of Chinese legend is often depicted holding one of the peaches of immortality, a standard legendary fixture themselves.

39 Comments

Ink Burns Comments

“Perhaps I should kidnap that little brother of yours and keep both of you here,” she added, thoughtfully. DO EEET!! Then EVERYONE can be happy family and live happily ever after. T^T and the country can get screwed

Also, I’m kind of loling at the way this points out how special everyone in this very normal little family is: an exiled prince, the barahime-witch, and a legendary assassin. Sittin out in the garden. Pickin peaches with a…what, three year old? Five year old? Something like that? I never was aware of it, in series. <3

Possibly. The funny thing about the scene is that it’s stated explicitly that Ryuuki is acting childlike several times — he holds the flowers like a child, for one thing. He isn’t just holding them, he’s got his fist wrapped around them. And then he gets scolded by Shuurei and sits down and gets thorns taken out of his hands. >____>

ALTHOUGH this is also the scene where you realize he deliberately went to her quarters dressed in a thin nightrobe specifically so she would feel that she had to let him in.

Yeah, when I thought they were just white, I was pretty much thinking “oh, hey, what a /thorough/ ploy to look innocent”. It’s one of the things that fascinates me about Ryuuki, that he can scheme so well and be so genuinely childish and tactless and poorly socialized in the next moment.

*and sparkling* Great to hear you liked this! Shoukun seems like such a deep character, and yet we know so little about her–she’s hard to work with. *chuckles* And I swear, she was /totally/ serious about kidnapping Ryuuki. But, for all his angst, Seiran seems set on going back to the palace, so she’ll let him.

*wicked grin* There will be united Shi-Kou cuteness in another two stories or so.

Indeed, I fear my comments are probably on the side of unproductive, as filled with just squee and love as they are. In an effort to change, I’d like to mention (forgotten in my initial bout of squeeing^^) that I really love the hawk comparison. And ‘tame’ really is the way to describe him when around the people he loves. It’s a great parallel, along with the cages.

Oh, excellent! I was hoping that wouldn’t be too over the top. The setting seems baroque enough to support it, but I know every now and then my imagery runs away with me. ^_^ Given who Shoukun is, the cages/chains thing almost had to come in, but Seiran is so… /feral/ when he comes out of Sa; I wanted something to echo that.

Seiran as feral is also another excellent image. Actually you’re having a lot of success in comparing Shi family members to animals so far; last story you described Ryuuki as “alert as a wild animal,” and this time around it’s hawks and tameness. I like it very much. 😀

Ah, thank you! The Shi boys really make me think of wild animals a lot, especially with their sensitivity to danger, poison, etc. And Seiran… he used to be tame, and went wild during That Year, and now he’s slowly coming back; but I have to wonder if he’ll ever be truly domesticated again.

Uuum . . . I’m fairly certain it shows up in the anime, because I can see the scene perfectly in my head, but I don’t recall which episode it was. And since I know what was said, that means it must be in the already-subbed episodes. ::frowns, trying to recall:: I don’t think I’m making this up, though I’m deeply suspicious of my mental capacity when it comes to memory-related questions. Nor am I going to be able to check my eps for another couple of hours, but when I find it I’ll let you know . . .

Not that one; it’s the most recent summary/translation Kage’s done, out of the latest issue of Beans. *wry* I have to admit, though, it’s such a vivid scene it really does feel like we’ve already seen it animated. I can totally hear Shoukun’s tone of voice.

It’s seriously not in the anime? ::unnerved:: But . . . I can totally see it, sepia flashback-tones and all, and Reishin holding Shuurei, and Shoukun playing the erhu . . . I could have sworn it was in the anime . . .

All right, that’s it. ::grits teeth:: My memory is to be taken out back and shot, post haste.

*fishes around* I memoried all Kage’s translation posts I could find. That story is here and my memory category for the whole lot is here. It’s a bit out of order; also, some of the /best/ stuff is in the comments. Shadow really needs to be fed cookies or truffles or something for doing all this.

aaaaaaah happiness. A very peaceful feeling to this installment, with everyone relaxing (kinda) in the garden. No wonder Seien’s so happy, it’s an entirely different world from the one he grew up in, and his situation in Sa Province.

I thought Shoukun’s random kidnapping idea was quite amusing and very well done on your part; somehow I get the feeling that she actually would have gone through and done it, too. Shoukun’s morality and generally held morality do not seem likely to coincide, and somehow I feel like she could make it happen, and make it work somehow.

And the idea of Shoukun and her two royal hawks is also a lovely and poetic one.

I don’t think you’re at all over-the-top with the language or the imagery, and I adore the way you’ve written Shoukun. She’s definately one of the most intriguing characters in the series, to my mind, and I’m only sorry that we get to see so little of her.

It amuses me the way you’re taking care of Seien’s personal hang-ups one after the other, too- his lack of personal motivation in the last segment, and this time his tendancy to take everything on himself. At this rate he might even end up (gasp!) well-adjusted!

Ah, it’s good to know the imagery is working out. I dearly love poetic description and always squee when I hit a series that totally justifies using it. ^_^

*laughing* The boy has a while to go before he actually reaches well adjusted, especially since Shou and Senka are about to kick his feet out from under him, but he’s getting there. And I really think that, once the Kou family knew he wanted to head back into the palace fray, they would do their best to make sure he was sane enough to succeed. I mean, anyone who raised Shuurei to be herself have got to be good parents.

… albeit definitely apart from common mores and morality. ^__^

More coming! I wrote like a madwoman this weekend, and have about nine stories/chapters stacked up.

Ooo, Shou and Senka. ::very happy:: No one’s written either or those two yet, that I know of (well, with the exception of myself and majochan, and none of that’s been posted yet) . . . I’ll look forward to it very much.

::amused:: Speaking of wild animal allusions, in terms of my own writing I tend to liken Shou to a fox. It just seems so fitting. He even has yellow eyes . . . ah, he’s fun to write for too, the smug bastard.

*laughing* Fox completely suits Shou; especially since people keep calling him ‘tanuki’ when they’re annoyed with him. He is fun, isn’t he? I keep wondering when Seien’s going to snap and strangle him.

Nice! No, really. I’m always happy to discover those little ficlets of yours when I opne up my ‘Friends’ Page. <3 And I absolutely adore Seien interacting with little Ryuuki! <3 <3
(Am still confused about the existing number of chapters of “Age of Silver”, though. *hangs head* Help? ^^;;)

Thank you! *chuckles* And it’s not a problem. In order, the stories so far are: “The Road Not Taken” and the Omake that got added to it, “The Wind Cries”, “Paper Dust”, and this one. The lot of them cover about three years, so far, but I have yet to decide exact timing. ^_^;